Gandhi Foundation

This webpage is maintained by Kingsley Hall where the Gandhi Foundation have their office. It contains various
research material regarding Gandhi. It is part of the
Kingsley Hall website which contains the history of the building and local information. Many peace events take place at
Kingsley Hall but these are usually not advertised by Kingsley Hall. Visitors to Kingsley Hall are
welcome by prior arrangement. Please contact the Centre Manager for further information:

David Baker:

Mobile: 0773 9277 298

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known as the Mahatma to the people of India and as Bapu to
friends, was born in Porbandar, Kathiawar, 1869. As a young man he studied law in London. In 1893
he moved his legal practice from Bombay to South Africa. His witnessing of prejudice and abuse of civil liberties
in South Africa led him to oppose discriminatory legislation. When he returned to India in 1914 he was welcomed as a hero for
human rights. He spent the rest of his life campaigning in India for independence. He only left
India one more time to attend the Round Table Conference in London. He chose to stay at Kingsley
Hall on the invitation of Muriel Lester and because he wanted to live with the poor as he did in
India. He was assassinated by a fanatic on 30th January, 1948, just a few months after he had
finally helped gain independence for India, Pakistan and what was to become Bangladesh.

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows and doors to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. - M.K.Gandhi

The Gandhi Foundation, formed in 1983, aims to spread knowledge of Mohandas Gandhi and his ideas
in Britain.

Gandhi not only played a major role in India achieving its independence but taught
a philosophy which has universal applicability. The core of that philosophy is the search for
truth through nonviolence - ahimsa.

Gandhi taught respect for animals as well as humans, a non-exploitative relationship to the
environment, the elimination of poverty, the limitation of personal wealth and possessions, and
nonviolence applied at all levels from the interpersonal to relationships between states.

Excerpts from the period when Gandhi was in London - with attention to Gandhi's
statements regarding Dr Ambedkar; the communal issue and how it was used by the British to
delay discussing the constitutional issues; and Gandhi's feelings towards the people of the East
End and Kingsley Hall.

The office is based on the top floor of Kingsley Hall next to the "cell" Gandhi
stayed in. This cell is kept open for public visits and meditation and prayer. The office has
a large peace library and the 96 volumes of Gandhi's Complete Works which were published after
Gandhi's death and contain all of his speeches and letters and related materials. Arranged
chronologically the Complete Works are an excellent study resource.

The Gandhi Way is the newsletter of the Gandhi Foundation. A very readable
compendium of Gandhian activities and contemporary thought in nonviolence. It also has a
letters page for more informal contributions.

The Newsletter is edited by George Paxton, 87 Barrington Drive, Glasgow G4 9ES. Articles,
book reviews and letters of a specifically or broadly Gandhian nature will be gladly received.

The Gandhi Way comes out four times a year and is sent to all friends of the Foundation.
The office at Kingsley Hall has a nearly complete collection of the Gandhi Way for study and
some extra copies for purchase.

The Gandhi International Peace Reward is presented every year to an outstanding
representative of nonviolent peace action. The recipient of the award in 2000AD was Adam
Curle.

Cecil Evans (previous Chair of the Gandhi Foundation):

"Adam's main interests have been in education, particularly peace education, and in
reconciliation and the resolution of conflict. He was the first professor of Peace Studies
at Bradford University and was a visiting lecturer at the International Peace Academy.

"In his other major field of interest, the resolution of conflict, he has been very much a
practitioner as well as an analyst. He has played a major role on behalf of the Society of
Friends, of which he is a member, to help end wars and conflict in such countries as Biafra,
Sri Lanka and, more recently, the Balkans. I well remember during my time as a member of
staff at Friends House, Adam returning from the field for reporting and de-briefing. In
much of this work he was keen to change stereotypes and misinformation that one side has
of the other as he moved to and fro between the parties in a dispute. It was, I think, a
very special and valuable kind of shuttle diplomacy that he undertook as a representative
of a non-governmental organisation.

"I was myself greatly influenced by the importance Adam placed in his teaching on justice as
a condition of peace. Like Mahatma Gandhi he believed that injustice has within it the seeds
of violence and must first be remedied if peace is to be possible."

The "Let's Co-operate" education pack has been produced by The Gandhi Foundation to encourage
the use of co-operative games. The pack includes four books and a video film of some of the
games being played by children in North London.

In co-operative games, all players find it mutually beneficial to help one another. The
pleasure comes from working together rather than being the winner. This is in contrast to the
vast majority of sports and games where competition is the overruling factor and the desire to
win is the main purpose.

Winning certainly makes us feel great, full of confidence and glowing with our achievement
but there are only a tiny number of winners compated to the great majority of losers. When
we consider the major role that competition plays in children's lives, this is all the more
reason why it should not dominate their play. However this is not an attack on competitive
sport. There is plenty of room for all kinds of play, but there certainly should be a greater
balance between co-operation and competition. In any case there are not merely two extremes.
All play has a great element of co-operation in practice. There must be agreement on rules
and, in all team games and sports, there is a strong group spirit which produces loyal
cohesion and mutual respect.

The movement towards co-operative games is rapidly gaining ground wherever the games are
introduced and the "Let's Co-operate" education pack will be a source of ideas and inspiration
to this movement.